BOE Meeting 02/24 @ 7:00PM

001i would like to call this meeting of the eastern township board of education to order pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by the secretary of evesham township board of education in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the board of education office emailing written notice to the burlington county times and the courier post filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eve sham township may i have a roll call please mrs cappello here mrs everhart here mr fizzagaro here mr catherine here this is noel here miss lee here mr meegan here mrs ryan here we have a quorum okay at this time i will ask for a motion to go into executive session and a motion to approve oh and a move and

002a motion to improve items 2.1 through 2.4 whereas njsa10412 allows for public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the board of education of ysham township has deemed it necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters which are exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board will reconvene following at the end of the closed session at approximately 7 30 p.m now therefore it be resolved that the board of education will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in the nj sa 10 412 items 2.2 through 2.4 do i have a motion mr canthan mr lanzalata roll call please mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzagarov yes mr canton yes mrs noel yes mr lancelata yes mr lee yes mr megan

003yes this is ryan yes motion carries thank you we'll see you all around 7 30. [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] you [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] i would like to resume this meeting of the ysham township board of education thanks for your patience will you please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states and at this time board member joe fizzakero will read the mission statement of the board of education thank you madam president the mission of the instrument township school district is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and community the district provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our

004students to achieve their unique potential embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making respect themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively and become contributing members of a diverse global society thank you mr fizzicaro at this point in time we are going to be moving to presentations dr smith floor is yours yes we're going to start with demacy and is mr minelli here or miss goldman here by any chance that's all right um we will call up these are students who are olympic conference honors band recognized and as your name is called come on up and parents if you want to come forward take some pictures we'll have all the students in each group stay up for the whole time and then we'll take a group photo at the

005end and when we're done all the awards we'll even take a little break so there can be a few more photos because we have a number of students to recognize tonight and we're very excited about this so luca frangela [Applause] all right luca come on down good job buddy nice nice thanks guys just stand over there okay all right we've got calista hunter [Applause] [Music] okay we have dana [Applause] gerber dana dana wearing the dms sweatshirt very nice awesome congrats then we've got alexander lightfoot come on down [Applause] alexander congrats yeah and then we have bruce novoah [Applause] bruce there you go yeah miss mcgill you're snapping you're snapping pictures right this is our these are our olympic conference honors band rec knees all together [Applause] thank you guys all right so now we've got

006the 2022 olympic conference honors band and south jersey junior high school band recognize jasmine choke [Applause] jasmine here and if a student's not here that means they are home practicing and then we have evangeline martin [Applause] congratulations this is our olympic conference and south jersey from damasi yeah yeah all right now we have uh on to mustangs middle school i saw mr hoffman here if you if you're welcome come on down if you want and mr white if mr white's here and he wants to come on down feel free there's plenty of room here um first up we have olympic conference honors band alexa butler [Applause] and i kind of like like even after maybe social distancing goes away i like the long walk because it gives everybody a chance to like just hear your

007clap and you know it's good alexa congrats then we have timothy carl [Applause] mackenzie gordon stanchal [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congrats mckenzie great job great job oh and then we have uh ace lee [Applause] it's really helping me by the way i appreciate it i like it i like it all right like my daughter is a senior at cherokee she plays music she's graduate i wish she was not a senior so that i could i could go to her performances and see the eighth graders who are here playing next year at cherokee because it's going to be fantastic our music programs between the middle school and high school really work well together you know that's his parents because you maybe you've been in performances where they've been together so uh but i'm so excited for these

008students for that it's great job man all right chase weingard [Applause] and then luke zarilli [Applause] that's all right let's bring our all of our mustangs to our olympic conference honors band come on for we're going to get a big pic of everybody together all right and then we've got our 2022 south jersey honors band recognize first up benjamin pielman [Applause] great job benjamin good job awesome and then ethan yoon [Applause] this is 2022 south jersey honors band and then we have one last student who is the 2022 olympic conference honors band and south jersey honors band from martin middle school and that is kevin chang [Applause] nice job kevin thank you can we have one last round of applause for all of our musicians who were recognized tonight from martin middle and to macy

009middle school all together [Applause] and as a final reward for those students and families we're going to say you don't have to stay for the rest of the board meeting if you don't want to because from here on we have uh just our regular board agenda you're welcome to stay if you want to but um if you want to get home and and do other things you feel free we will take a brief pause for a few minutes so people want to take some more photos feel free and we'll start up again in a couple minutes thank you [Music] so [Music] so [Music] okay we're going to reconvene our board of education meeting and continue on with 4.2 the preliminary budget presentation presented by dr smith and cabinet [Music] so our district does three budget

010presentations which is fantastic one is required which is the final budget presentation in may some districts do two they might do a final and a tentative we do three so which to me again that's been going on long before i got here i just see it as a great indicator of traditions of communication transparency and trying to avoid surprises and solicit input [Music] the story of any single budget is a multi-year story this is part of that multi-year story and you can see here our budget this year is actually less than it was in 2018-19 just for some perspective you think about what's happened you know since 2018-19 and they were actually operating with less money right than we were at that point enrollment again multi-year story that peak is important only because that's part

011of how we are an s2 district um which we'll get into a little bit later but this the reductions in stated that we're going through the seven years is partly due to our enrollment drop since that point we're down over a thousand students slight increase projected this coming year but still within that five to six year average again multi-year story projected aid next next year just over 7 million which is about half what we got in 2017-18 you know we're almost 14 million in state aid in 1718 and we're just over seven million this coming year and that's always been the challenge is to continue to provide an excellent education for all kids with a leaner and leaner budget just a little recap of s2 in case anybody doesn't know this was a seven year

012state funding sequence we're currently in year four heading into year five the um there was recently another court ruling to force the department of ed to release and make public the um the algorithm that the formula they use to determine state aid there are six districts involved in that lawsuit toms river freehold brick these are districts that are losing that are larger than us and they're losing a lot of aid um it will be interesting to see when that formula finally comes out the three components we know of student enrollment municipal property wealth and personal wealth of individuals as our enrollment has dropped our municipal property wealth has increased as has the the socio-economic wealth of the of individual residents in the town which have led to our very extreme drops in state aid totaling

013just about 8 million dollars this is the breakdown of those 8 million peak years this year next year is the is k2 if this year was everest next year's k2 just just uh just under right next year's 1 million 651 000 projected it's still a projection because um the actual numbers don't get released until march we will have those actual numbers by the time of the tentative budget presentation in march additional impacts chapter 44 loss just over a million yearly personnel costs as you know you see no matter where you go no matter what article you read that's across all industries inflation as well question i mentioned earlier again the driving question is how can we provide the same effectiveness the same excellence of the educational services for less money the goal towards that is

014to try to maintain all instructional programs we managed that last year we are managing that this year with more struggle right to do that this year but we are doing that um but each year gets tougher right so it's harder to project will we be able to say that next year adjusting adjusting staff positions for enrollment and of course continuing their focus on student achievement additional goals and priorities railing the technology and limiting spending on supplies whenever we can trying to achieve savings with material resources rather than human resources this slide shows the breakdown of our appropriations and you can see in staffing you know is over 80 percent of the total there and i've been talking a lot tonight and i'm going to hand it off to mr ishinti for a few slides and

015then i'll come back good evening everyone as dr smith just said already the top two lines make up the majority of our budget 82 over 82 percent of our budget with salaries and benefits then um the pers contributions is a little over one one point eight one eight one point eight six percent then we have our insurances um then you get down into um curriculum supplies um a little over one percent special education about five percent of our budget for next year the elementary middle school budgets uh less than one percent of uh at a half a percent of our total budget then you have operations of transportation at a little under six percent um so as of right now the preliminary appropriations are at 78 million eight hundred and sixty thousand and nineteen dollars

016so if you look at um last year's final budget comparing it to the preliminary numbers that we have this year you can see that the salaries are up a little over three percent benefits uh right now we're projecting them to be down three percent and that part of that's due to uh staffing changes people that have retired and people we haven't replaced has impacted that line then you look at curriculum special ed all the other budgets are all all uh going down so we're trying to control our costs as best we can um and but at this point right now our budget's at 78 million like i said um capital projects is up and that's that that those monies come from capital reserve which is um part of our surplus separate from our operating budget

017so that number tends to change year depending on what projects we have to move forward with in that budget year thanks mr shinty so we're gonna get into some um some project reductions and and we're not you know this is a preliminary budget so we're not actually there yet all the cuts identified um we're about 300 000 short at this point which speaks to the difficulty of identifying these cuts the non-staffing reductions again not a big amount but we've reduced that every year for many years in a row at this point and it just gets there's less and less to trim transportation we talked about this last year some we did not make any transportation changes last year though we did talk about them this year we have two changes there is a savings to

018be achieved through these changes and one additional component this year that existed last year but nowhere near to the degree that it does this year is to address staffing issues so in other words it is hard to find bus drivers right i know i've set up here at meetings before if anyone is out there and is interested we will cover all the costs for you to get your license and your training to become a bus driver for your township school district it's a great place to drive and you know as you drive around you see billboards advertising for truck drivers people with cdls um it is challenging and um there was a time even earlier this year where i had to send a phone call out on a sunday evening to everybody in the whole

019community because we had a perfect not only a perfect storm because it could always get worse but a terrible storm of circumstances that was affecting our potential our ability to get everybody to school on time the next day so we reverted that so this is a proactive measure to win back some more resources of driving capacity and anticipation of next year so this first shift is in the rice zone 2 crown royal currently 52 students to be converted to a walker zone there is already a crossing guard in place at crown royal parkway entrance to rice so the kids would just come out to crown royal walk down to the crossing guard and cross on the other side of rice doral white marsh links way currently three students majestic currently has zero students but that's

020included in this as well also to be converted to a walker zone they will use the same crossing guard as is currently there this change was one we talked about last year and and put off for a year but um students who currently attend bieler and live west of green brook drive so there are 28 at this point they will walk to des there is already a crossing guard in place at carlton so just like the rice shift there's already a crossing guard we want to also thank the township for their help with us in this process as they had a traffic safety done by the police department and these two changes were identified through that study as as recommended or advisable to do with no further changes needed given the crossing guards already in

021place i will add for this one since it is a change in school placement that any rising fifth graders or current fourth graders rising fifth graders will have the option to stay at bieler to finish out their school and we'll be in touch with those families additional reductions at this point and this you know i can say like last year this slide had numbers on there that i don't don't even want to think about again they were so drastic necessarily because we were cutting about four million dollars from a budget last year they were you know well into the double digits in both the fewer positions column and the retirement vacancy column our goal is always to have those numbers be the same you know when fewer positions and retire vacant is the same that

022means that we're able to eliminate those positions without eliminating any you know without anyone losing a job essentially and at this point we have seven fewer positions the bulk of that is going to come through a class size increase at elementary a few grades will be affected and it will only be an increase of one student per each of those grades i will share more about that in march any of those class size increases will only bring us up to average compared with districts around us okay so we we follow we use data from where class sizes are elsewhere in making our decisions and we will be on par with the class sizes of other districts even after those changes and i'll give specifics at the next budget presentation about those class size increases but

023that's where the bulk of that seven positions is coming from paraprofessional support staff restructuring says tbd because that's that's another that's an area where we're still looking as i said earlier we haven't identified there's still 300 000 in cuts that we have to identify and there are some areas that we were just still looking at steps explored considered and not used and i put that word not up there twice so no one gets confused not right so cutting educational programs number one not barely avoided that's back to the mission right think about that driving question solar expansion we looked at that last year as well additional fourth cell tower we also looked at that last year and it still is not advisable at this time those very large steps there again we we looked at

024all those last year we looked at them again this year not not enough savings there to justify something that um drastic and facility use fee increase we also um there's not enough savings there and um to justify an increase in that in that way steps being taken being used sale of property if you remember last year we talked about and that was some very good news the township committing to buy two properties of ours country farms and off of hanover street which is near greenbrook in fact if i go back to this slide you can see that big green kind of triangle shaped piece there that's hanover property and country farms everybody probably knows but that's a very large plot of land that has ball fields on it so that is in process i can't

025even begin to describe the number of steps involved to get the approvals from the state in order to sell those properties but it is extensive and we continue to make steady progress towards getting those approvals we have approval for one we just need approval for the other at this point the sale of that property isn't is anticipated in our next year's budget so that so that one time revenue generating is included in this year's budget which does mean like projecting forward the 23-24 budget would need to accommodate and account for an additional six hundred thousand dollars that we're covering we anticipate covering in this coming year through the sale of the property bus advertising looking back at last year's slides i that slide had at least fifteen thousand dollars anticipated in terms of revenue we

026came up well short of that and i i know i've included it many times in different updates and talked about it i'll talk about it again it's a really great way to advertise we have a lot of businesses that um are you know serve and are important to our families and what better way to um you know get get noticed than to have your um your company's name um you know every day going through our neighborhoods so if you're interested just contact me activity fee increase we're going to increase it at middle school from 165 to 185 from elementary from 1 to 10 to 115. just trying to keep pace with the cost the increasing costs increase every year for activities and then continuing our communication advocacy with state elected officials a couple things of

027note there so i mentioned earlier the um the the s2 formula being released there's also so our time is a bit of our of an ally for us in that way another way that it's a bit of an ally for us is there's a bill moving through the senate at this point that has bipartisan support to re-examine the funding formula itself and some of the the verbiage and statements surrounding that bill are to try to seek a way to have a more equitable distribution of state funds between urban rural and suburban districts as right now you know it is suburban districts have been losing state aid over time so should would that bill continue on that could stand to benefit our district and so time is an ally for us in that way as well

028bills like that come about through the collective voices of many townships including our own and i just want to say thank you again to everyone last year who lent their voice and their advocacy to tell our story as a district i am fully convinced even though i don't know how but i'm fully convinced it had something to do with the additional astra money that we got in june of last year that let us extend the benefits of our paraprofessionals through this year put this slide in this slide was not in last year's presentation included it this year we've had increasing community conversation about the topic of full-day kindergarten for all with no more tuition-based k right so that'd be fully district funded full day kindergarten it is something we are considering and talking about as

029a board and it has come up in prior board meetings here through public comment and in other ways and i just wanted you know these are broad stroke numbers we're working on a more detailed cost analysis but just at least give the information that we can at this point we anticipate it would cost 2 million per year to fully fund full-day kindergarten the two biggest components of that number are the loss of our full-day tuition revenue which is about a million dollars that rev the cost of full day kindergarten is tailored to make sure that that full day kindergarten is cost neutral to our budget um and then an additional million for the cost of adding teachers and improving rooms and other materials that would be needed like i said we'll have a more detailed

030cost analysis to share we are working on that but at least this gives some information for folks and i provide it just as a as a context you know as we're talking about um cuts and changes and goals and considerations and um you know as a board we are we're listening and we're talking and we'll share more as well in the future on this topic and i'm going to go back to mr shinty so on the first two slides that i went over we talked about the appropriations the expense side of the budget on this slide we're looking at the revenue uh where we're going to generate the monies to pay for the things in the that we are appropriating in next year's budget and this is a side-by-side showing our current budget uh and

031then comparing it to the budget revenues that we are projecting for uh for next year for the 2223 budget and you can see that the miscellaneous revenue is about the same it's up very little the budget of fund balance that's up to 600 000 anticipating we will receive the money for the sell the properties this year and then we would appropriate it as part of fund balance to use the next year's budget the other fund balance is the excess surplus that we have to appropriate when the audit's done and last year we generated a little bit more than we did the previous year so we will so that that lines up as well the maintenance reserve the monies that we set aside from in the maintenance reserve um last year we only we only set

032it aside 617 000 compared to the previous year of 7.85 and that is the total maintenance reserve that we have available so we're going to use that as well um the emergency reserve is down to less than uh i think it's less than 50 at this point but we're not we're just leaving that there at this point uh capital reserve last year we had done one project the rice fire alarm system this year we're looking at a couple of buildings to do alarm systems in and also do some upgrades to the hva system at marlton middle school so that's why there's increase in that line and that that's also out of a a reserve account state aid obviously we know that that's getting cut so obviously that shows the projected amount that we believe the

033state is going to go down 1.6 million extraordinary aid we anticipate to get about the same dollars that we got from the previous year same with the medicare revenue as well the local tax levy going up at the two percent the maximum amount we can increase it gives you the the bottom numbers last year 78 0032 182 and projected revenue for next year's budget at 78 545 722 and if you remember on the previous slide the appropriations were were greater than the anticipated revenue as dr smith said we still need to cut a little over three hundred thousand dollars to balance this budget so in in the past we've we've shown this slide um just to show um what revenues we would generate if if we decided not to raise the tax levy we would

034generate a little over 77 million if we went with a one percent tax levy increase uh 78.9 million the two percent tax levy increase the two percent tax levy with the waivers and the bank cap we have no bank cap um and the preliminary budget they're all the same because that's that's the max that we anticipate we'll be able to increase our revenues um at this point obviously while the final numbers um when the state is released on march 10th okay so if you look at now comparing the revenues to the appropriations um what would happen if we only increased if we didn't increase the tax levy at all we'd have to cut an additional 1.5 million dollars from this budget if we only increase the tax levy by one percent we'd have to cut

035950 000 um and then the last three columns again are all the same um if we do increase that to two percent if there's no waivers that we anticipate we have no bank cap we have to cut another 314 thousand dollars from this budget at this point to balance it the preliminary tax levy calculation the first column is the second half of last year's budget the next column over is the first half of this year's projected uh budget for 22.23 you take half of the tax levies from each year um and that gives you the actual calendar 22 budget the calendar 22 tax levy which is 64 million 208 459 that's in the last column the writables um i don't have the updated ratable so this is based on last year's ratables and that gives

036you the the numbers to work out the calculation that the 22 tax rate will be 1.2123 percent the 2021 tax rate was 1.2013 so right now the increase would be 0.0111 so for the average home at nine hundred dollars that's based on last year's numbers again i don't have the new numbers yet but we should have them uh for the tentative budget the uh proposed uh increase um for on the average household would be thirty dollars and five cents per year thanks mr shinty so uh as he just said the governor's address march 8th districts get stadiums march 10th so we don't need to have a separate um tentative budget board meeting this year because of that later timeline so we'll be using our march 24th regularly scheduled board meeting as our tentative budget presentation

037and tentative budget adoption tentative budget due to the county office march 28th and then the probably the biggest date on here march 5th which is our special meeting when we adopt the final budget so still relatively speaking some valuable time between now and march 5th i'm sorry between now and may 5th right so um and you know as we continue to work on the budget take the steps we can take and you know there's as i said earlier a couple different things in the works the release of the state aid formula the bill that's working its way through trenton things that could could potentially affect the our budget landscape and so it makes it you know hard to decide on a budget in february when so much is is dynamic and changing so we will

038be watching and looking for every opportunity between now and may 5th to be able to improve the outlook for our budget any questions thank you dr smith um just a quick question um just to be transparent we are losing another 1.6 million dollars next year for our budget um put that into perspective well considering that we have 82 percent staffing our budget is broken down 82 going to the staff if we were to make that up that 1.6 million from staffing alone what does that equate to for for for the staff yeah it's it's it's good i'm glad you asked because it's nice to be able to take a big number and break it down into like a an understandable size right so when we work on our budgeting and think about like the slide

039i showed earlier where we had seven fewer positions so when we look at a position in terms of budgetary savings a teacher position we consider to be 75 using a 50 000 starting step one salary plus 25 000 for benefits so that's that's an approximate you know it's going to be it could be a shade more but that's what we use so to take 1.6 million 1.651 million divided by 75 000. quick math would be if it was 750 000 it would be 10 positions 750 times two million and a half would be 20 positions so it's it's a shade over 20. it's 20 two positions basically is what it is so a follow-up question um as can you equate that to a program that we use uh daily in school um you know if

040if someone said okay let's cut let's cut a program what's a program that we use daily in school cost so that we can kind of just see it as in dollars and census dollars and cents well what i would say to that is um that would be multiple programs you know so just like 22 teachers right so um there are programs and i i miss it's like i'm thinking of some in my head but i almost i feel like it's like if i name them right then people might read tea leaves on that and try to think oh that was what was in his head first if that makes sense like does that mean we're first um but i will but i will say like you know there are programs in our district that are

041two teachers let's say right that serve a lot of kids and what we would need to do and what we what we what we do do right and what we would continue to do is look at the very very difficult choice of are we talking about eliminating a program or talking about trimming back a program like so for example a program that might serve students across multiple grades are we shrinking that so that it only serves students of fewer grades if that makes sense and that might be a one-teacher reduction in that program versus eliminating an entire program that might be say three or four teachers thank you dr smith i appreciate it so when we're talking about 1.6 million dollars which is just the tip of the iceberg here you're talking close to 20

042teachers or multiple programs if we if we had if we were if we had no other way to achieve those savings that's what it would look like absolutely thank you i appreciate it thank you thank you uh dr smith two questions on bussing because i just wanna make sure my numbers are straight here uh we have we have it's it's rice over in king's grant and then we have the one over going into the macy over in cambridge the one in the one in rice are those two different routes or one is that one route so with the number of students there that would actually be two two routes two rounds okay and so nuts you're talking just for rice it's two rounds so three total correct okay i just want to get those numbers

043right with those routes we're reducing routes are we looking to reduce out of out of the where we we get private busing i'm so glad you asked because i remember this time you know this has been a topic that we've been working on so it would be it would be so basically like the savings and right now it says tbd for that but the savings that we would achieve would include the additional fee that we have to pay because we can we currently cannot provide all the routes in-house through our own transportation department that we need to so we have to use outside third party providers hillman has been our provider um this year last year um and there's a there's an additional fee to that because they have to make their piece too right

044so um so that would be essentially any route that we save back through a change like that is one less rat that we have to go to an outside provider for because i still i still believe in the idea of weaning off of that because that's a that's it always concerns me where districts rely too heavily on private busing and then ultimately have zero control over the cost of what happens whether it's through the idea of of monopoly or cartel or whatever and so that's how far off away from that but the i just want to make sure that that we're constantly looking at reducing those routes and then looking over time to if we have to refill routes to refill them with our own inside that's what i'm looking for yeah yeah and we

045in and we are constantly looking for additional working to get additional drivers in um you know it's it's uh the competition is steep even even the third party providers i mean you know they too have struggled this year and you know that like in in communication with hillman and with other third party providers i i know firsthand that that they have had the same issue that we've been dealing with yeah um so um yeah well i appreciate that thank you thank you dr smith i have one more i'm so sorry um i had it on a note here and i totally missed it class sizes we're moving class sizes up one one per each grade right um not not every grade but multiple grades multiple grades okay um we're now hitting near the middle of

046the pack correct correct um is it something that would as we get through this danger zone and we get past what is it 2425 uh are we looking to will we be looking to scale back again um it would i mean everything's everything is always a consideration you know um the um it will because of the way that um that seven-year sequence is structured and the way we're using for example like the property sale money this year and we've used some of the ester money in order to maintain some positions that have already been eliminated from our budget so that feathers out the cuts and helps like kind of distribute the impact even beyond the seven year sequence so even though that seven years ends you know in 2024 25 we'll still be kind of

047getting our footing again financially beyond that so it's it's it's hard i i would be it would be hard to imagine um [Music] decreasing during that sequence of time yeah i don't mean i don't mean immediately you know i'm not talking about that because i'm gonna assume there's gonna be like a budgetary hangover after all this is done but i i was talking about like down the road where are we looking to reclaim some of that ground again well i think um we would always be looking we would always be looking right at every option okay that's fair yeah thank you doctor yeah i have no more questions i'm good i promise all right thank you everybody so now we're going to move to public comment just in case anyone is not aware we have

048two public comments first public comment is for what is on the agenda and the second public comment which happens later in the evening is for anything you wish to discuss the meeting will now be open to the public referencing item agenda items only however if your questions pertain to student or personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person it's also crucial please for you to give us your name and address before you speak up and also to limit your comments to one time per public comment period at this time is there anyone that wishes to speak regarding agenda items only okay seeing none we are going to close

049that portion of the meeting there will be another public comment section at the end so at this point we're going to move forward with the approval of minutes i need a motion to approve item 6.1 do i have a motion mr fizzicaro miss everhart any questions or comments regarding the minutes okay seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappella yes mrs everhart yes mr pizzacaro yes mr canton yes mrs noel yes mr lancelata yes miss lee yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you at this point we're going to move to item 7 superintendents report and administrative items do i have a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.6 miss noel mr fizzicaro before we get into questions and comments i'm going to give the floor once again to

050dr smith thank you ms ryan and i will make my comments very short as to talk a lot tonight but um i did want to make a friendly reminder for everyone that starting on march 7th masks will be optional throughout eastern township school district it's our first board meeting since i shared that out in one of my updates and i just wanted to say it here as well and it gives me another chance to just to emphasize that it's another moment in this journey of the pandemic when kindness and understanding are essential all right it's going to be an individual choice for each person so we don't want anyone feeling pressured by any individual whether it's student to student whatever the combination is individual choice and as always we want to let kindness understanding and

051common courtesy be our guide throughout ultimately our best way forward throughout all these challenges of today is always going to be schools right our schools where kids are developing and growing they're valuing listening and finding their voices valuing questions as much as answers and leaning into learning socializing being kind and much more and the need is very great black history month this month followed by read across america into next week all these components of a school year are threaded together continuously into a whole by what they have in common and that thread in common is often called kindness and we are appreciative of the kindness as well from all of our families including towards our staff our staff in all roles are working very hard we are looking forward to weaving in more and more

052opportunities and events this spring that have been on hiatus for nearly two years the schools will be sharing information about that as they always do as we move forward and just lastly i want to say schools have never mattered more thank you ms ryan thank you any questions or comments about the superintendent's report okay seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes yes or no yes thank you mr frieza cara i'm here too but yes mr k yes mrs null yes mr lancelot yes miss late yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes mission carries thank you moving to item 8 curriculum and instruction i need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.3 do i have a motion mr lanzalada miss everhart any questions or comments to

053curriculum instruction i have a comment about the middle school concert band festival rowan i was very happy to see that we have an event that the students can travel to because this item field trips as we all know has had nothing in it for how long so i was happy to see that so enjoy any more questions seeing none i'm going to ask for a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes thank you mr cow yes mr cather mrs noel yes mr lancelot yes miss lee yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes commission carries okay moving to item nine finance and operations i need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.15 do i have a motion miss cappello mr visacaro thank you any questions or comments regarding or pertaining to finance and

054operations okay seeing none i'm going to ask for a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes mr frizzakaro yes mr canton yes mrs noll mr lancelata yes miss lee yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries okay next moving to item 10 personnel i need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.9 do i have a motion miss nolm mr canthan any questions or comments pertaining to personnel miss ever hire so i want to say congratulations to everyone who's retiring but i guess i want to give a special shout out to two individuals one is the lunch aid retiring from rice i think mrs tubertini was there from when my daughter was there so my daughter's in her first year of pharmacy school so she's been there a long time and i

055wish her well on her new chapter in her life i also want to say shout out to mrs busa who's leaving from mms um science program i i met her having to do with a lot of things for the school board but i also want to say she was actively involved in the senior dessert theater which is a really cool event and she also was in charge of graduation or the dance i'm not i don't remember the dance of the graduation at that time but uh really incredibly energized lady just her passion for those events and for her job were always duly nuded when she was present and doing those so wish her a lot of luck on her next chapter good luck thank you that's it thank you mrs everhart any more questions or

056comments mr canton yeah um most people know i'm not one for commenting or shout outs or anything but i do want to recognize like mrs everhart said about mrs bieser retiring uh mrs biso was my teacher when i was in middle school um she taught seventh grade biology in yellow hall and i went on to get a bio degree in undergrad so it's very clear that her influence was something that i took for the rest of my life and when we look at that self-directed lifelong learning aspect of the mission statement i think that speaks directly to it whether it's in the classroom or extracurriculars or some other avenue i think it's all of our hope that the students find some sort of outlet while they're in middle school to carry with them for for

057years to come so thanks miss pisa thank you mr canton any more questions or comments about personnel okay seeing none roll call please mr cindy this is capello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzakero yes mr catherine yes mrs noel yes mr lancelata yes miss lee yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries okay moving to item 11 policy i need a motion to approve items 11.1 and 11.2 do i have emotion mr fizzicaro mr hampton any questions or comments pertaining to policy okay seeing none roll call please this is cacao yes this is everhart yes mr fizzycarrow yes mr kanathan yes mrs null yes mr lanzalotta yes miss lee yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes mission carries okay at this time we are going to be moving into committee reports does

058any committee chair have a report that they wish to share okay mr lanzalata chairman of community outreach thank you thank you thank you mr ryan um the for mrc the spring sports um are still having registration and it's going on until the beginning of the beginning of march also the sports unity program is also registering for football in the spring for those of you that may not know what sports unity program is it's a fantastic program in which they pair up our student athletes with with children with disabilities and they you know they teach them the sport great social interaction it's just a fantastic program uh community service really gets kids involved the eastern education foundation is having their casino fundraiser casino night fundraiser tomorrow night i know i discussed this last time but i'm

059just throwing it out there again please come support them it's tomorrow night at the mansion voorhees it's from 7 to 10 30. there's going to be dj dancing food from local restaurants gambling prizes all that kind of fun giveaways but it's it's 100 what it's a it's a tickets are a hundred dollars and uh all the proceeds uh benefit the students of eastern school district um so and i want to just thank uh president scott scott zielinski he's been doing a phenomenal job putting it together meeting once a week twice a week at that to get it all set it's going to be a great time i hope that you guys will go you can get tickets at the eevsham education foundation.org look it up and hope to see you there tomorrow night thank you

060mr lanzalata any other okay miss noel technology chairperson how did you know i was going to talk about technology so we had our quarterly technology meeting this month and um i want to thank we met with mr case ms mcgulick and we welcome mr lanzalata to our committee this year which i was excited about and we had a long meeting because the technology team has been very busy with uh mr case's leadership they were finishing up this fall upgrading some of our wireless network with adding access points and upgrading some of the switches interrupt me if i'm not using the right terminology and partially this was funded by s or money because of the fact that we were thrown into remote learning and we figured out that we needed some upgrades so thankfully we got

061esser funds for that and mr case also explained that they've been busy working on replacing security cameras at our schools and that was partially funded by grant money so um and then finally they are now busy working on installing the 16 active panels in in different schools and the active panels were ordered last june we had approved the money for them in in a year ago but they just came in in january and mr mcgulick explained that we are going to order more active panels so you'll see that in next year's budget as well and we'll see when they come in but overall the technology budget for next year is reduced by five percent over this year's budget so i wanted to keep you informed of that and the last thing that miss mcgulick went

062over is that the state has updated their technology standards and we have to implement them this coming september so the curriculum committee will see more of that because the technology curriculum needs to be updated and we need to be ready for that for september and i did read through that 45 page new jersey technology update and it is very interesting it's weighted heavily on computer science and engineering design and all the way down to the lower elementary grades so i'll be interested to see how that's going to be implemented here and that's all i have thank you so much anyone else miss everhart chairman of curriculum instruction actually i'm going to piggyback with mr lanzalotta we are on the community outreach committee together and we are sharing town council attendance so i'm going to report

063on the last town council meeting which while the one last night was cancelled but the previous town council meeting the big item up for discussion at that council meeting was the presentation to the public about the black run preserve which is that piece of property and parcel that is in our township that is it goes from king's grant all the way down to near the sanctuary and all about there and it's it's really a local treasure that they are trying to actively get the rest of the township who is not familiar with the black run preserve gem here to become more familiar so they gave a presentation to the public and they had the leaders of all of their crews there like the ones that are in charge of the trails the marketing it they

064had quite a staff it was it was unbelievable and i had a presentation about how it all came about they talked a lot about how how our schools have been going there our middle schools especially the macy middle and marlton middle have had projects there where they've been doing conservation and clearing trails two key dates that they wanted the public to be aware of is march 22nd they're going to have an introduction to the black run preserve presentation prizes and different refreshments at marlton middle school and they are also going to have a poker run on 4-2 it's their 10th anniversary event where you can choose to walk run or bike either four or eight miles and that will begin at rice school so these are just uh if you haven't if you don't know

065much about the black run preserve jeff and i were talking about it earlier this week it is it is something that you should take a couple minutes i just can't believe it's right here in in marlton and they showed pictures of what was on the property there before they started there was a boat there was a couch there were a lot of tires and through all this tireless effort of all these volunteers it is now these beautiful walkable trails and there's a lot of natural uh you know vegetation and wildlife that is there so it's really really very interesting it's all from donations and grants that they get from the state so sorry if i went on too long there but um so that was it for town council so switching gears to the other

066hat that i wear and that's curriculum and uh committee chair so we did talk about curriculum and instruction agenda items specifically to you mrs knoll about the rowan band festival mrs mcluhan explained to us that that was able to occur through an opportunity for them to send an application a lot of different schools sent applications to participate in this festival and they they gained acceptance and that's why they're going so that's pretty exciting some other field trips which we might be having or this spring are special smaller types of field trips for the autism group of children just to keep them you know staying current with the skills that they're learning we also talked about the calendar which there's been some significant changes to the calendar that you'll see if you look at our agenda

067we talked a little bit about the changes that are constantly being updated in the safe return plan it's going to reflect the change with the masks and any other future guidance that comes from the new jersey department of health will be evidenced in bold and yellow in the safe return plan that's always been updated and very lastly we talked about the enrichment triad program manual which has to deal with a lot of different things but most specifically our tier 3 program here if you're not exposed to that as a board member for those of you that are new or that aren't familiar with the tier three program it's really worth a read the kind of programs and things and overview and vision that we offer through the tier three program is really outstanding um i

068remember there being a board meeting at demacy actually where we had a 3d printer make an item that the tier 3 students brought to the board they they printed out this like 3d item it was really fascinating so anyway thank you it was a great meeting that's it thank you mrs everhart anyone else want to share a committee report okay all right now moving on to old business we don't have any old business but we do have new business based on the recommendation of the chief school administrator i need a motion to terminate employment for the in executive session motion mr fizzy caro miss nol roll call mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes yes mr fizzicaro yes mr canton yes this is noel yes mr lancelada yes miss lay yes mr megan yes this

069is ryan yes commission carries that's everything for new business now we're going to move into pub open public comments the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comment to three minutes per person and also that this section is meant for one comment per person any comments or questions is there anyone that would like to speak please come up to the microphone state your name very clearly and your address good evening state your name clearly and your address good evening can you hear me can you hear me uh my name

070is nikki tate address is 324 revere road good evening board um you may remember me from the november board of education meeting i'm a mother of three i'm a former teacher of eight years from medford township school district i have since retired to be home with my children i have been an eve shim township resident for over 15 years and i have come to speak to you tonight once again in order to continue the conversation about the kindergarten programming in yvsham township i thank you for the opportunity to speak to you once again back in december dr smith and mrs mcgulick graciously allowed mrs carlton and i to meet with them to discuss the kindergarten program in further detail after this discussion um it was revealed to us the reason why full-day kindergarten was formed

071and after this conversation i believe the intentions to start a full day program were good it was stated that the reason esham township school district opened up the program was to give parents a choice that parents can simply choose to send their children to the full day program or to send them to the half day program i think that most people like the idea of a choice however the current reality of the situation is is quite different what we may have intention unintentionally what we have unintentionally created is an impossible choice for parents choice one send your child to a half day to the half day program that we already pay for with our current taxes and our child misses out on academic social and emotional growth that other children are given when they pay

072an additional fee above and beyond what we already pay in our taxes we can send our child to the half day program only to feel like they are visiting for the day instead of feeling like part of the school community and involved in all areas outside of the academics choice two pay an additional five thousand five hundred dollars for your child to receive more academic time more social time and time to emotionally grow all while feeling 100 part of their local school how many of you feel that this is a choice for families on one income for families with one parent for families that are in low income for families with multiples how many of you feel that is even a choice for families with two working parents the half day schedule alone not even

073considering the cost makes it an impossible choice for working families how many of you would be able to work when your child's schedule is 8 11 to 10 47 am my guess is that not many of you would be able to do that and send your child to the half day kindergarten program what this means is many working families may feel that they have no other choice but to send their child to the full day based on logistics alone stay here at four minutes almost four minutes i did have one more thing thank you so much thank you so much i just wanted to to to end by sharing with you the mission statement of uh vanzant school it's located on their website and it states the mission of the j herald van zandt school

074is to provide a caring compassionate safe learning environment that respects each member of our community through integrated programs and also empowers each individual to reach their maximum potential socially emotionally and academically can we really say with great confidence that we are living out this mission statement for all of our kids that we are empowering each individual to reach their maximum potential i think that it's obvious why the push for full day kindergarten for all must be a top priority for you the board because i know that you are four kids and i know that you're for all kids i understand full well after hearing all of the budget cuts that this is not going to be easy financially it may even feel impossible but since we are doing but since when is ever doing what

075is right easy will we choose easy or will we choose what is right and fair and provide an equal education for all of our kids i know that we can do this because we're marlton let's continue to build a district to be proud of and i look forward to seeing movement in this issue because our kids deserve it thank you very much thank you mrs tate okay i see out there's a lot that that ones that want to talk and be heard just let's keep in mind i'll try and limit to three minutes thank you your name and address please danielle remus 39 old republic lane marlton danielle remus remus thank you so good evening board members i'm here tonight to speak again in support of making full day kindergarten an equal opportunity for all

076of our eve sham students as some of you are aware our petition which can be found at change.org slash etsd fdk for all has been signed by over 1565 supporters requesting a cost analysis and allocation of funds to our full-day kindergarten program so that every student is provided with an equal opportunity to a better education and strong educational foundation i'd like to share some of the comments that were left on the petition every child deserves access to quality education it is especially important during these formative years tuition-free kindergarten would also put us in line with our neighbors and make marlton more desirable to live in full day is essential to learning all children should be provided equal access to education i believe in full day kindergarten both for the benefit of kids and for working

077parents thank you we have twins starting in one and a half years and the cost is very steep especially for two full day kindergarten is the norm and expected but parents who can't afford it can't provide it for their kids it's unfair full day k will be beneficial for children as an educator children have a right to equal educational opportunities it's clearly discriminatory for those students in eve sham who cannot attend full-day kindergarten for the simple reason that their parents cannot afford the added expense in all of our surrounding districts full day kindergarten is provided for all students not just this the children whose parents can afford it clearly a money-making incentive for eve sham thus giving little regard to the children the district is supposed to serve almost done i moved to marlton back

078in october 2021 and we are so excited for our young daughter to get get to be in marlton schools in a few years i am floored to hear that marlton does not offer free full-day kindergarten i'm a special education teacher at a local district much smaller than marlton and they have offered full-day kindergarten for much longer than 11 years i've taught in this district kindergarten is so important to our children's development and educational journey thank you for your time thank you mrs remus [Applause] please state your name my name is christine alley and my address is 152 thornwood drive i time myself so hopefully i'm under three minutes one of the main reasons my husband and i chose to move back to marlton was because of the wonderful educational experiences we personally had my five-year-old

079son currently attends bryce preschool and qualifies for special education services he has had wonderful teachers and support staff thus far shout out to all the teachers in the room i know how hard you guys work however i have recently learned that esham currently only offers a half day program for their kindergarten inclusion room this limited time does not factor in transitions or related services such as speech or ot the full inclusion model argues that all students should be given the same opportunities including students with disabilities and that the only way to be given the same opportunities is if all the students are in the same classroom receiving the same education why do identified inclusion students only get a half day program while general education tuition based students get a full day of learning all special

080education students deserve a full day of learning to consistently develop their academic social and emotional needs in a consistent environment with minimal transitions as a teacher within burlington county i was disappointed to learn that esham is currently not offering a full day inclusion kindergarten program i ask that esham prioritizes making a full day inclusion kindergarten classroom in each school to provide the best educational services to students with special needs i also ask you to consider the needs of not only special education students but those of general education students students have experienced a pandemic which has greatly impacted their social and emotional well-being and academic development now more than ever they would benefit from a full day of kindergarten according to an article by west said and posted on the nj.gov website research comparing half-day and

081full-day kindergarten shows that children develo benefit from a developmentally appropriate full day most notably in terms of early academic achievement full day kindergarten can afford children the academics learning time needed to prepare formal mastery of primary grade reading and math skills each and families are currently divided by who is able to afford attending full day versus those who do not have the financial means as a mother of twins i ask you to consider the financial burden a tuition-based kindergarten program creates for families of multiples we should be providing an equitable education for all in kindergarten one does one that does not differ based on special education classification or financial status i'm aware that logistically and financially speaking this would be a monumental task for our district however it is time to invest early in our

082children like so many other burlington county school districts have already done so as a parent public school educator and former student of esham township school district i am hoping esham continues to provide the best educational experience for all starting with our youngest learners thank you thank you mr nelly [Applause] hello please state your name and address sarah applegate 329 revere road marlton just to piggyback off of what was just said around special education i was lucky enough for my middle child i have three to be able to send him to van zandt we paid for the full day what happened after he started school was we realized he had a disability and if he was in the half day program they never would have found out it would it would manifest in the afternoons uh

083it was oppositional defiance disorder along with add he was in a half-day preschool program there are so he was at rice um and there are so many instances of children entering kindergarten for the first time it's the first time they're in a classroom how are teachers expected in a two-hour time frame to identify things like this he's now in second grade he's doing very well he's getting the services he needs i'm so grateful to be in this district uh for so many reasons but this is really an impact to the community as a whole i shouldn't benefit because i can afford to pay the tuition thank you mrs applegate good evening name and address please lisa argust 31 albany road thank you for taking the time to listen to us over these past few weeks

084on this topic i'm not an educator or a member of any town council i'm just a mom and resident of usham and wanted to share my perspective i'm a huge fan of marlton and this area i'm a transplant from delran and even though dahren is only 20 minutes or 20 minutes away from eve jam you think it was on the other side of the state because i didn't often come this way and really had no idea about the area anyway while looking for houses eight years ago we drove past demacy and our realtor who we relied heavily upon told us that people moved to this particular section of eve sham for this school for this elementary school and being six months pregnant he was speaking my language that was my number one non-negotiable so i

085was sold after the sticker shock of over twelve thousand dollars in taxes were off so long with the taxes my expectations were high but all this was worth it for a great school system fast forward six years later after sending my child to daycare for five years i couldn't wait to get into the public school system and finally let my taxes go to work but wait there isn't tuition free full day and equal access for all you've got to be kidding me so many thoughts ran through my head like why why'd i leave dalaran why didn't we move to mount laurel or voorhees or haddenfield and how how are we going to do this if we take the half-day option my husband and i work we'd have to leave our desk pick up our daughter

086no bus for us because we live too close and bring her to child care and go back to work and doing something like that is not even a true option so this really leaves working parents in a bind and almost forced to pay the fifty five hundred dollars after speaking to many parents about this topic some of them here tonight many are wondering the same thing i have heard many many parents state and i quote fifty five hundred dollars this is exactly why my child is not going to the full day program it's unaffordable in an already unaffordable town and that's pretty sad because we love marlton many families have more than one child so this adds up not just a one-time hit to their savings and let's not forget school ends at 305 and

087many parents don't finish work until five or later so if they do pay the 5500 they still have to pay for aftercare or a babysitter speaking from experience and also very generally speaking the half-day children are behind and it's not fair for the students or teachers once they get to first grade it's almost like we pay fifty five hundred dollars in vain because we have to backtrack to make up for the lesser education of the half-day students it sounds harsh but i found it to be true so who has really been benefiting from this not the students who walk into first grade underprepared and not my daughter who had an amazing full day kindergarten experience at demacy that started her off on the right foot and now has to backtrack because many of the kids

088in her first grade class did not have the full day experience not just academically but socially as well that is another aspect that is a huge factor especially in this new world we are living in where students are already less social than they have been in previous years because of the pandemic they say everything you need to know you learn in kindergarten and wouldn't it be great if the young learners in this town could all have access to the same great start both academically and socially thank you mrs argus [Applause] good evening please state your name and address yeah joe o'brien 200 sycamore avenue well i'm here to speak in support of the full day tuition-free kindergarten i'm not only a parent of three children in marlton but i'm also a teacher in new jersey

089and understand how difficult it is working within the constraints of the two percent cap on budget increases combined with the reduction in state aid that being said in all my conversations with colleagues in education at every level elementary secondary and administration i'm yet to find one educator that does not believe that full-day kindergarten is for all is of utmost importance it is unfortunate that the previous administrations have left our current board and superintendent with this problem when there have been opportunities to implement or phase in full day kindergarten in the past before we were met with the reduction in state aid we knew was coming there were years when the budget did not make use of its full allowable 2 percent increase these budgets were championed as keeping tax increases below our neighboring towns with

090the context left out that it also came at a cost continuing to leave our youngest learners behind almost every district in the entire state while it is not your fault the parents of kindergartners in this town are taxed an additional fifty five hundred it is now your challenge to fix this problem that was left for you while the support continues to grow all of us in education know that any push for change has to be data driven so i'd like to share some data from a few of the most recent years njsla tests that measure how our students measure up to the expectations in math and ela while there are many things to be proud of as a district there's one thing that is very clear our youngest learners are behind i compared the results

091of the njsla to the other neighboring districts that along with us send to the lenape regional high school district for third graders in 2019 out of the eight districts we ranked sixth in ela and seventh in math in 2018 we also rank seventh in ela the only local district behind us is woodland and with all due respect to woodland they are a district of barely over a hundred kids k through eight so i do not think they are a fair comparison ranking us at the bottom of local comparable districts is not something i should be i think we should be proud of what do those districts have that we don't have i believe it's only full day kindergarten past the third grade our students begin to do much better in comparison our fourth and fifth

092graders rank between second and fourth across the three most recent years of the njsla when comparing those same eight local districts that send directly regional the same trend can also be seen when comparing our students to the state averages in 2019 ela our scores compared to the state as a whole every single grade level as well as the subgroup of economically disadvantaged students met or exceeded the state averages for percent of students meeting expectations with one exception to third grade what can we attribute this drastic change i think the points to two clear conclusions one our students are coming into their first tested year well below the average and two our district and our great teachers do a fantastic job of identifying our students in need of additional support and bringing them up to and

093beyond expectations over the rest of their elementary years i bring this up because i doubt there is any magic wand being waived our third graders scoring below average are not magically transformed into above average seventh and eighth graders in between work is being done students in need of more support are identified and supported through small group instruction one-on-one instruction the summer caps program the literary support program in the summer i'm sure there are countless other intervention methods that i can't even name that bring our students up to expectations catch them up in areas where they are be where they're behind while this work and program should be commended all of these intervention methods also cost the district money the first question always surrounding implementing tuition-free kindergarten is how much will it cost us but i

094think the district also really needs to follow up that with an even more important question how much is not offering tuition-free kindergarten costing us now we don't have any doubt available on our first and second graders which are the most recently affected by being offered less education than the rest of the state instead i can only offer what i've learned anecdotally and speaking with other parents whose children are also in need of reading recovery summer support programs etc and it's that most of them needing these additional supports my children included are coming out of the half-day kindergarten classes i would like to ask the district if you have your own internal data besides just saying that both half day and full day students leaving kindergarten meet their benchmarks the same unfortunately as a math teacher

095i know that that type of snapshot data is both biased and incomplete do we have any longitudinal studies that look at the percentages of our elementary students in need of additional support coming from our half day program versus our full day program mr bryant yes you're a little over four minutes almost coming to five all right i will speed up i'm sorry full day kindergarten will cost a lot of money of course everything in education costs money but our children's education is not a frivolous expenditure it's an investment and just like any investment whether it's your house your business or anything else trying to save money in the early stages cutting corners in the beginning or doing things as cheaply as possible in the beginning more often than not ends up costing us more in

096the end sorry i'll finish real quickly but um while many are here out of frustration i'm also here with optimism because i believe dr smith you are the superintendent that can fix this error when you were named superintendent two years ago i asked all of my friends and family that worked with you at cherokee and cherry hill and their responses were unanimously rave reviews and that high praise was backed up with your handling of the scheduling nightmare that was the 2020 2021 school year while some of our neighboring districts and the district i work at dealt with uncertainty and watch the virtually only instruction extended and extended again you put tremendous effort into making sure our children got every possible minute of education they possibly could while they opened up emails with dread that their

097returns to school date would get pushed back again and again i opened up yours multiple times during the year impressed that you were able to find a way to squeeze more minutes of in-person instruction into the week within the restrictions constantly re-evaluating how you could get our students more time in school you clearly see the value time in education the value of time difference between full day and half day kindergarten is no different sorry just one last thing ryan you're almost at six minutes i'm sorry i have to cut you off at this point unless you want to finish it at the end of everybody else [Applause] good evening my name is kelly apollucci i'm at 74 lakeside drive i have two children in the district they're in fourth grade and second grade i had

098both that were in a full day kindergarten program my son was in if you get guessed it by the way i'm here for the full day kindergarten my son went to a private school that was through my work my daughter went through the rice full day kindergarten i can tell you i have definitely noticed a difference in the advantage that it has given her they both are doing wonderful in in the district i cannot give enough praise to the teachers at rice they are absolutely amazing and i've heard the same with schools across this district while i was appalled at the beginning to hear that kindergarten had to be paid for i am not from this area either i am thrilled with what she received i am still going through the paperworks and projects that

099mrs decipio gave her and she is in second grade now so they went through so many things she is reading chapter books books some things that are at the same level as my fourth grader she definitely is probably above the level that some of her classmates who had a half day the education that they received and if it wasn't for her current teachers i think that she would probably even be a little bit bored but we have such amazing teachers here that they are able to keep her engaged and keep her challenged while also working with other students and looking back on it i really thought you know if i had to do this over and it wasn't we weren't able to pay for it you know i would be willing to maybe sell a

100kidney well all right i don't want to over exaggerate i wouldn't sell mine but i would definitely sell my husband's kidney so it definitely is a very important thing all joking aside also another point i just would like to bring up obviously all of you know how important this is for students and the kids at the same time as other parents have mentioned in teachers for the teachers themselves those that really have to bring two different groups of kids that have some that have already gotten really a leg up in that extra bit of education we know reading each night 20 or 30 minutes to your kids already gives them an advantage imagine the extra hours that they are getting from a trained professional so i'm very happy that it is in the discussions i

101hope that it continues and is a very serious discussion going forward thank you thank you for everything you do thank you mrs apolluci next hi girls you can talk into the microphone if you want to say your name too name and address please jen foley 67 five crown royal first i'd like to uh thank you guys and tell you that we're grateful that eve sham is going masked optional on the seventh but i would also like to highlight how our mass concerns are only the tip of the iceberg i know our family and several others are concerned that murphy and the new jersey department of health are retaining the power to reinstate masks at their discretion after the seventh and we just want to make sure that the board has heard from us and from

102the kids of what they've experienced over the past two years in a school that they once loved they don't always feel safe at school anymore and covet has constantly been used as an excuse all year for the troubles they've had in school we're requesting that the board join the growing group of school boards in the state applying pressure to the governor to reconsider his policies ellis's eight and at least five of her friends were bullied and physically assaulted by a student who threatened to bring axes guns and swords to school to kill everyone and himself she was afraid to say no to being his valentine because she was worried he would kill her and her sisters when we brought it up the chain of command the administration dismissed his behavior as playing too many video

103games during covid grace is 10 and someone in her class has a kill list a teacher called her friend an idiot in front of the whole class last week she was taught about hiv and unprotected sex but we haven't signed those consent forms yet at home the administration admits that they haven't had time to review this teacher's curriculum and the teacher refuses to show it to us maya is six and the bus just left school without her a couple weeks ago when i called school looking for her nobody had any idea where she was her and three other six-year-old and her older sister the bus safety it took 15 terrifying minutes for myself and another parent to drive around and find our kids on a random bus ourselves when we talked to the school about

104it they told us there's a lot going on right now with covet and all so it wasn't really a big deal to them that they lost four six-year-olds on february 11th these three kids politely said no thank you to masks these are the students that were threatened with a two-day suspension that had extra police at the school to intimidate them for standing up for their rights i knew we talked a lot about kindness today and taking appropriate risks but they didn't experience any of that kindness when they stood up for themselves it seems like we're so focused on covid protocols that we're turning a blind eye to bullying and safety concerns by student and staff alike if one of the rules of the school board is to represent the needs of the students we'd like

105to discuss the needs of the students especially now that the results of the fall start strong assessment are in new jersey 40 to 60 percent of students will need strong support in math and 25 to 40 need strong support in english and language arts and now the american academy of pediatrics and the cdc is lowering the standards for children's milestones so many of these struggling kids will never be eligible for support we know that the board only has so much power with the governor's directives but unlike other school districts we would love to see eve sham also apply pressure to the governor to make him aware of parents concerns and the detriments that have happened to our students because it appears the cdc and our governor and other administrations have abandoned science and their civic

106duties in the pursuit of a dollar murphy and the new jersey department of health want to reinstate masks at their discretion after the 7th and the cdc has these unenforceable orders about masks being worn on school buses even though they're not technically public transportation we just want you to remember that these are guidelines and they're not something that we have to follow in the township of eve sham we're asking the board to join us parents in calling and writing murphy's office to tell him to stop his egregious overuse of power and to give us our schools and our students back so that our board of ed and our administration can effectively do their jobs without these concerns of covet hanging over their heads all the time at this point i think we can all agree

107that the way we've treated our students these past two years is wrong but it's not too late to apologize to these kids to stand up for them against future mandates and suggestions and to give them their education and childhood back thank you mrs fully thank you girls [Applause] good evening good evening my name is jennifer alvarado i live at 100 dorchester circle in marlton i'm one of your hometown heroes i am a disabled veteran permanently disabled and i am a single mother of four children next year i'm supposed to have one of my irish twins start kindergarten over at rice unfortunately i'm not going to be able to do that because i can't afford it from a medical standpoint and mental standpoint my children need it due to kovid they are lacking interpersonal skills they're

108lacking you know just everyday things of wanting to hug and talk to people all they see is masks i was a student at cherokee and i became pregnant my senior year i joined the military to serve my country and so i could provide for my children i came back to this town for the education you're going to run a hometown hero out of here because i'm going to have to choose between food and education for my two children i can't afford eleven hundred dollars in two years or excuse me eleven thousand dollars in two years we have excess funds we have capabilities in this town one day those children that are lacking interpersonal skills due to covid and you know other things they're going to be standing here and they're going to be telling us

109what we can and cannot do and i think it is imperative and important that we lead by example and teach these kids the right way we need to provide a proper education for them so they can fare well in the world if we don't do that then i think later on everyone in marlton is going to have an issue because they're future board members of the board of education the township and everything else so i do hope that you are able to do something in regards to this because otherwise i have to leave this town i have to uproot my children and i have to go find another place to live because i can't afford an education that i feel my kids need otherwise they're going to lack later on down the road so i

110ask that you please consider this thank you thank you mrs alvarado [Applause] any more people interested in public comment hi my name is audrey gillen 33 rockingham drive and i have a question for dr smith this past fall you came to the elementary schools and talked about the preliminary budget and at that time you said that it would be on your preliminary budget that paraprofessionals was losing benefits and could i have some clarification because i didn't see that tonight well right now it's just public comments so if you have a specific question you can see dr smith afterwards unless he wants to address it now i'm glad to answer that but i try to make sure first if you're if you're if you finish your comment and it's totality yes yeah okay so when we

111went around to the budget conversations which i'm glad you brought that up because in addition to the three budget presentations that we have we actually have like a a fourth sharing and feedback opportunity which is individual budget conversations in each school and we went around to the schools in the fall for those conversations i remember very well having to remind everyone because you know time passes and and and it's it is there's a lot of moving parts to a budget but last may when we approved this year's budget the paraprofessional benefits were not in it right so the benefits that the paris are getting this year only came about through the extra money that we got in june after this year's budget was passed that was through the what we call miracle monday which was

112the extra 1.1 million dollars that we got in in benefits so the so the benefits this year are covered through that money and the way it works is the hours that we work now so this from january 1st to june 30th actually earn the benefits that we receive in the coming six months so ms gillum like the benefits so our pears will will have benefits from july 1st through december 31st based on the hours they're working right now and then the benefits will run out on january 1st 2023 except for the the top as we did this year so this year we were able to free up enough resources in the budget to provide benefits in our budget for the eight paraprofessionals with the highest seniority we're also able to do that in the 2223

113budget so and how come it wasn't shown so that everybody who was here before could have seen it yeah i just i well i did just answer your question and it's the same information i shared in the fall so thank you anyone else wish to speak any questions or comments from the board okay so at this point i will ask for a motion to adjourn miss noel mr fizzicaro all in favor say aye [Music] you